No matter what what industry you are in, providing high-value information to your blog visitors is essential. For example, if you provide travel services, it’s a good idea to include information from government and foreign travel-related departments, such as news and updates on travel warnings, advice from embassies, etc.
To create and publish this type of information, however, requires an enormous amount of work and expertise. You have to filter through, gather, and organize a ton of data, check your sources for accuracy, write and edit content (or hire someone to do this for you), and then ensure that this information is continually kept up-to-date. As you can imagine, this not only involves a huge amount of work but most of the information you are dealing with is well beyond your control.
Fortunately, there is an easier way to provide your readers with up-to-date information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS is one of the easiest ways to provide your readers with great information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
RSS – A Basic Overview
- RSS, which, according to some definitions is short for Rich Site Summary, is more commonly known as Really Simple Syndication. It is also often called a “feed” or “web feed”.
- After users subscribe to an RSS feed, they no longer have to physically check the website for content updates. Instead, their web browser constantly monitors the content and keeps feed subscribers up-to-date.
- RSS feeds are also used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as blog entries, news headlines, audios, etc., which any user can then subscribe to.
- RSS feeds can be viewed using a program called a feed reader, or feed aggregator. Feedreaders can be used to access content on all different kinds of topics and distribute this content (and any updates made to this content) to other sites.
- Feeds can be made available in different formats and read by different feed aggregators. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom Publishing Protocol) feeds and RDF (RDF = Resource Description Framework) feeds. All of these formats, however, use a standard XML file format to ensure that feeds are compatible with different devices, readers, and programs.
- Many sites and software tools also allow you to combine multiple RSS feeds to receive news and updates sourced from many sites.
In this detailed guide, we explain where your RSS feed is located, how to syndicate your content online using RSS feeds, and how to add content from other websites and blogs to your site via RSS feeds.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a powerful and legitimate method used for sharing web content. Feeds provide a simple and easy way for online users to stay up-to-date with the latest information published on websites they are interested in.
First, let’s look at syndication.
Digital content publishing agencies rely heavily on content syndication to publish news from news agencies around the world.
Content syndication allows online newspapers and popular media publications to deliver readers stories and news from all around the globe without having to hire and send more reporters everywhere around the world …
(News reporting agencies rely on content syndication to publish newsworthy items from news sources around the world.)
Syndication is used to share newsworthy content legitimately. online media publications syndicate their news stories using feeds …
(Content syndication is used by global media publications to share information with other publications)
Most websites actually want you to syndicate their information. Content syndication not only allows information to be shared, but it can also drive visitors back to the original site responsible for publishing the content being syndicated. This provides websites with new opportunities to generate significant web visitors.
Most online newspapers and major content sites have a feed section (look for links that say ”RSS”, “Syndication”, or “Newsfeeds” in them, or just search for “name of site/keyword + rss” – e.g. “nytimes rss”, “courier mail rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Most news reporting agencies and major online media publications contain a feed section. Image Source: smh.com.au )
Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds link will bring up a directory of RSS feeds for different content sections of the site …
(RSS feeds list. Source: nytimes.com RSS feeds)
Each of these feed items allows readers to access content about different areas of the site (e.g. technology news, travel news, editorials, etc.)
Feed sections can also contain feed subdirectories …
(RSS Feed section. Image: latimes.com feeds)
Note: An RSS feed is only a URL. To use feeds, all you have to do is to copy the URLs and paste these into a program that can process the feed into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
Content Syndication – Benefits
Syndicating content from someone else’s website on your website has some obvious benefits. It not only gives someone else’s site additional exposure online, it also helps your site by freeing you up from having to create the content …
(Content Syndication Benefits Someone Else’s Website And Yours!)
While adding an RSS feed from another site is a great way to add content to your site without having to create it, it’s a great idea to try and get other websites to syndicate YOUR content.
When other websites syndicate content using your RSS feed, you have the opportunity to get more exposure online and drive new visitors …
(It’s worth trying to get visitors to syndicate your feed … it will help increase your exposure online!)
WordPress RSS Feed – About
WordPress automatically publishes a feed of your latest posts, allowing other online users to syndicate your content on their websites and blogs.
Depending on the WordPress theme you have installed, there are a number of ways to access your WordPress RSS feed:
1) If your theme has been configured to display the Meta widget on your sidebar or footer menu …
(The feed will show as many recent items you have specified in the WP Reading Settings section)
Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed
Another setting in the WP Reading Settings section that affects your feeds is whether to display posts as full text, or as a summary …
(Reading Settings – ’For each article in a feed show’ options)
Post Excerpts can also affect how the content in your feed appears …
(Post excerpts can affect how a feed displays)
We have created a detailed tutorial about using WordPress Post excerpts here:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned previously, to view a feed’s content, you need to copy the feed’s URL and paste it into a feedreader, i.e. an application that translates feeds into readable content for humans.
Let’s show you how this works.
First, find a website or blog and look for an RSS feed button using any of the methods described earlier …
(Look for a ‘subscribe’ button or link. Image source: YourCoffeeGuru.com)
Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy the URL of your feed to your clipboard)
If you want, you can check what the RSS feed contains by pasting the feed URL into a feedreader …
(Paste your feed URL into a feedreader to view the feed content. Image Source: http://feedreader.com/online)
Like feed readers, WordPress has the ability to process XML/RSS feeds.
How To Add RSS Feeds To Your Site
In the example below, we’ll add RSS content from another website to your WordPress site.
Adding An RSS Feed To Your Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry your business is in, you can add to your site the latest content from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry by simply importing content from their feed. You can easily display a range of information on your WordPress site such as news, social media comments, or content from thousands of sites using the WordPress RSS widget.
Let’s add RSS content to your sidebar …
(Add an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar area)
copy the RSS feed from a website containing content that you would like to display on your site to your clipboard …
(Copy your feed URL)
Next, go to your Widgets panel and paste the feed into a new RSS widget …
(Widgets Screen – RSS Widget)
To learn more about using widgets, go here:
Load your website in your browser. The content from the RSS feed can now be seen in the sidebar (or wherever the RSS widget has been added) …
(RSS Feed Added To WP Sidebar)
Add Your WordPress RSS Feed To Search Consoles
You can add your WordPress RSS feed to Google and Bing’s search consoles. This will help them index your content faster.
(WordPress RSS feed added to Google Search Console)
Adding your site’s RSS feed to search consoles is simple, fast, easy, and requires no technical skills. For a step-by-step tutorial, go here:
Adding RSS Feed Content To Your Posts
What if you want to add content from an RSS feed to WordPress posts instead of a sidebar?
You can do this using plugins. Search inside your ’Add Plugins’ section (Plugins > Add New) for RSS Aggregator, RSS feed to post, etc.
(WordPress RSS plugins)
Note: Most RSS plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for configuration instructions, or contact us for help with plugin configuration.
Here are a number of plugins you can check out that allow you to curate and add content from RSS feeds to your posts and pages:
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico)
WPeMatico is an easy to use autoblogging plugin that allows you to publish posts automatically from RSS/Atom feeds that you select.
You can manage all of your imported feeds and organize them into campaigns and categories.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator WP Plugin)
WP RSS Aggregator is an RSS feed importer and autoblogging WordPress plugin that offers additional functionality with premium extensions (add-ons).
For example, the Feed to Post add-on is an advanced importer that allows you to autoblog by importing RSS feeds directly into your posts.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer WP Plugin)
RSS Post Importer lets you import, syndicate, curate, merge and display full text feeds on your WordPress blog.
The plugin fetches an RSS feed and publishes the full content of every item in the feed as a standalone post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed – WordPress Plugin)
The POWr RSS Feed plugin lets you combine and display content from multiple sources using RSS feeds.
The plugin also lets you display images, videos, and articles, adjust feed spacing and size, use custom colors, fonts, borders, and more. It also has mobile-responsive design and supports text in any language.
The premium edition of this plugin contains a number of additional features, such as the ability to display different feeds, manually accept or reject posts in your feed, and more.
For more details, go here:
WP Pipes
(WP Pipes Plugin For WordPress)
The WP Pipes plugin is a powerful data migration plugin that lets you create curate content from RSS feeds, Google News, and other sources.
This plugin provides features like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, autoblogging, auto post to Twitter/LinkedIn/Facebook, export WordPress posts as podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and more!
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress WP Plugin)
FeedWordPress provides flexible Atom/RSS syndication options for WordPress site content.
As stated in the FeedWordPress website …
FeedWordPress is an open-source Atom/RSS aggregator for the WordPress blog publishing platform. You set up feeds that you choose, and FeedWordPress syndicates posts from those sources into your WordPress posts table, where they can be displayed by your WordPress templates like any other post — but with additional meta-data, so that your templates can properly attribute the post to the source it came from.
You can use this plugin to create aggregator sites, or bring together all your online activity into a Lifestream.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog by WPMUDev
(Autoblog by WPMUDev – WordPress Plugin)
Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up in minutes, without coding skills or complicated instructions. Simply copy and paste in your feed URL, give your feed a name (for admin purposes) and select a blog that you want it to post to.
For more details, go here:
RSS Includes Pages
(RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types)
RSS Includes Pages lets you display pages in your RSS feed in addition to posts.
For more details, go here:
Useful Tips
Tip #1 – WordPress Comment RSS Feeds
WordPress makes available RSS feeds of your latest post comments in addition to displaying RSS feeds of your latest posts.
You can view your comments feed by clicking on Comments RSS in the ‘Meta’ widget of your sidebar (note: your theme may not be configured to display this widget) …
(Comments Feed)
All the comments posted on your site by visitors will appear in your Comments RSS page …
(RSS comments feed content viewed using Firefox)
Like post entries, your comments feed items will display differently depending on which web browser you use …
(RSS comments feed content viewed on a Google Chrome browser)
Again, you can check the feed content by pasting the feed URL into an online feedreader …
(Paste your URL of your comments feed into a feedreader to view the feed content. Source: Feedreader.com)
Note: If the Meta section is not displaying on your theme, you can view the Comments RSS section of your site by opening up a browser and typing in the following URL:
- http://www.yourdomain.com/comments/feed
- http://www.yourdomain.com/blog/comments/feed (if your WP site installation is in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Creating Feeds For Single Post Items
Being able to create an RSS feed for individual posts can be useful. For example, you may want to add feeds from specific items to RSS aggregator sites, or you may have created a valuable resource that other online users will want to syndicate.
The formula for displaying an RSS feed for a single post item is shown below:
(Individual Post Feed)
To create the above feed, copy the web address of your post, and append “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.
(Single Post Feed)
Note: By default, if you only add “/feed” to the end of a post URI, WordPress will return the comments made on your post, not actual content of the post itself.
Tip #3 – Displaying Category Feeds
Some your site visitors may only want to syndicate content from specific categories. They may not want to subscribe to all of your site’s content.
WordPress allows you to create category feeds.
All you need to do is use the format shown below:
(WP category feed format)
Copy the category URL to your clipboard …
(Copy your category URL …)
Now, add “feed” to the end of it …
(WordPress post categories RSS feed format)
Your category RSS feed will now only contain content published in this particular category …
(Category-specific feed page)
The WordPress Codex also provides different ways to create feeds not just for post categories, but also feeds for tags, authors, search, etc.
For this example, let’s create a feed for a specific post category using the format shown below:
(Post Category feed format. Source: WordPress Codex)
Here is the feed format WordPress recommends using. In this example, the post category ID is ’42’. We’ll need to replace the post category ID and the domain name …
(WordPress post category feed format)
To find the post category ID, go to Posts > Categories …
(Posts > Categories menu)
Locate the post category you want and hover your mouse over the title to reveal its unique ID …
(Post Category ID)
In our example, the post category ID is ’29’ and the post category feed format we need to use for this specific category with our domain name looks like this …
(Post category feed format with domain name and ID)
Copy and paste the feed into your browser and hit enter …
(Paste the feed into your browser)
This will display the feed for that specific category …
(RSS feed of a specific post category)
Note that in this example, WordPress automatically converted the feed format we pasted into the browser into the category feed we had used in the previous section of this tutorial …
(Post category feed format)
Here is the feed format again …
(Post category feed)
In this case, the simplest way to create additional feeds for specific categories is to simply change the post category slug …
(Change the post category slug to create a new category specific feed)
Paste the edited feed into your web browser and hit enter to display the content for that specific category’s feed …
(Post category feed content)
Now that you have a method for creating feeds for specific post categories (or tags, authors, etc.), you can even create a directory or list of individual feeds for visitors.
Tip #4 – Publish A List Of RSS Feeds
You can provide your own RSS feeds directory that allows your readers to subscribe to content in the categories that interest them …
(Publish Your Own List Of Feeds For Subscribers)
Link a button icon to a feed URL and then create a table or a list of all your feeds on a new page …
(RSS icon. Source: public-domain-photos.com)
If you need help with inserting tables into WordPress posts, refer to this tutorial:
WordPress RSS – Additional Notes
RSS feeds can be customized in various different ways, such as adding videos to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these feed customizations require editing code.
WordPress allows you to configure various feed types that do not require editing code. Here are some examples of custom feed formats you can display on your site and how to structure the feeds …
(WordPress RSS – Custom Feeds)
Below are the different feed types, descriptions, and feed examples listed above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – contains your latest entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
- Feed Type: All Comments
- Description: Comments feed – Contains the latest comments left on your blog
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: RSS feed for specific items
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-your-blog-post/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Includes the latest comments made on single posts
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Includes latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2015/12/18/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Contains latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2011/09/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Feed that includes latest post entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2013/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: Includes the latest entries for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: Includes the latest posts for a custom type (e.g. book)
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/?post_type=book
One more thing …
Remember to promote your feeds. Place your subscribe button or link in a visible location …
(Promote your RSS feeds!)
Keep in mind that other sites will only syndicate your content if you provide your visitors with high-quality content that can add value to their sites and benefit their visitors.
(Easily add great content from other sites and get other sites to syndicate your content with RSS feeds!)
If you need great content ideas subscribe to our FREE content creation course using the form below:
Also, don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS feed 🙂
RSS – Resources:
- Feed Images – Visit Iconspedia.com or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “rss logo”, etc.) for sites that contain downloadable RSS images and icons.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board is an independent organization with three primary duties: publishing RSS specifications, providing guidance to developers who create RSS applications and helping to further the understanding of RSS.
- Wikipedia.org/RSS – Learn more about using RSS.
- WordPress Codex: WordPress Feeds – Official WordPress documentation. Visit this site for more information about feeds in WordPress.
Congratulations! Now you know where to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to syndicate your content online using RSS, and how to display content from other websites on your site using RSS.
Hopefully, this post has given you a better understanding of issues that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you improve your business online. To read more about using WordPress for a business web site please click on links to visit other great articles and tutorials on this site.
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"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum